Nature of the electronic states in a chain of potential wells in presence of an electric field

A Kronig-Penney model with a constant electric field is used to study the transmission properties of a non-interacting electron one-dimensional (1D) ordered and disordered systems with uniformly distributed negative strengths of δ-function potentials (wells). In ordered systems we examine the origin of the jumps of the transmission coefficient and the short-range localization (occurring before the first jump) observed previously. For disordered wells, we also examine the phase-diagram in the energy-disorder plane. The short-range localization is observed as a peak in the inverse participation ratio and as a minimum in the localization length. We found that the two distinctive behaviours correspond to a negative differential resistance and to a resonance at particular points corresponding to the edges of the Brillouin zones. Further discussions of these behaviours are included.     

Insecticidal effect of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Mentha pulegium</Emphasis> L. and <Emphasis Type="Italic">Mentha suaveolens</Emphasis> Ehrh. hydrosols against a pest of citrus, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Toxoptera aurantii</Emphasis> (Aphididae)

Essential oils proved their efficiency as natural insecticides to fight many pests of stored products and crops whereas the hydrosols have not been evaluated yet. The objective of this work is to assess the insecticidal effect of hydrosols extracted from Mentha suaveolens Ehrh. and Mentha pulegium L. toward an insect pest of citrus, Toxoptera aurantii (Homoptera, Aphididae). The extraction of hydrosols was carried out by hydro-distillation using Clevenger apparatus and then the chemical composition was identified by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. The chemical composition of two hydrosols revealed the abundance of hydrophilic and oxygenated compounds as piperitenone oxide and carvacrol. Different concentrations of each hydrosol were separately diluted in distilled water and applied topically to aphids. The results of this investigation have shown a high insecticidal effect, and the M. suaveolens hydrosol is more effective against citrus pests than that of M. pulegium L. Consequently, these natural compounds can be used in the management of aphids on citrus.     

An organic‐inorganic heterogeneous catalyst based on Keplerate polyoxometalates for oxidation of dibenzothiophene derivatives with Hydrogen peroxide

An organic‐inorganic material (NH₄)₂(MimAM)₄₀[Mo₁₃₂O₃₇₂(CH₃COO)₃₀(H₂O)₇₂] have been synthesized by reacting [(NH₄)₄₂[Mo^VI₇₂ Mo^V₆₀O₃₇₂(CH₃COO)₃₀(H₂O)₇₂] with the ionic liquid 3‐Aminoethyl‐1‐methylimidazolium bromide. The catalyst showed remarkably a high catalytic performance in the oxidation of dibenzothiophene (DBT) derivatives with H₂O₂ 35% as a safe and green oxidant. The main parameters affecting the process including catalyst, acid additive, hydrogen peroxide amounts and temperature have been investigated in detail. Sulfur removal of DBT in n‐heptane reached to 98.3% yield at 40 °C using 2.5 mmol H₂O₂ and 100 mg of (NH₄)₂(MimAM)₄₀[Mo₁₃₂O₃₇₂(CH₃COO)₃₀(H₂O)₇₂] after 90 min. Under the optimal conditions, BT (benzothiophene), DBT (dibenzothiophene) and 4,6‐DMDBT (4,6‐dimethyl‐dibenzothiophene) achieved high desulfurization efficiency. Our results showed that the reactivity order of different model sulfur compounds are thiophene <4,6‐dimethyl dibenzothiophene< dibenzothiophene. The catalysts could be easily separated from the reaction solution by simple filtration and recycled for several times without loss of activity.     

Modelling the trade‐offs between farm income and the reduction of erosion and nitrate pollution

Water is a very limited resource in Tunisia, both in quantity and in quality. Problems of quality are related to urban, industrial and agricultural activity. Erosion is causing dams to silt up and is leading to phosphorus accumulation in water. The use of agrochemicals, primarily nitrogen and phosphorus, is causing problems of eutrophication. This paper presents the results of a study of sediment and nitrate pollution. The methodology used is based on the EPIC simulation model and a multiobjective programming model (MOPM). The data generated by EPIC are input for the MOPM together with the economic variables. These tools are applied to a 486 ha farm located in northern Tunisia which includes an irrigated area of 300 ha. The study considers three objectives: maximization of gross margin, minimization of erosion, and minimization of nitrate losses. The noninferior set estimation method is implemented to generate the tradeoff curves between the objectives. Results show that nitrate losses are important for both rainfed and irrigated land. The same conclusion is valid for erosion. It is shown that the farmer can reduce the environmental burden without decreasing gross margin, since he is operating below the efficiency curve.     

Removal of Model Pollutants in Aqueous Solution by Gliding Arc Discharge. Part II: Modeling and Simulation Study

Plasma Chemistry and Plasma Processing - The aim of this work is the modeling of plasma-chemical reactions taking place between highly oxidizing gaseous species (·OH, ·NO and...     

2D-to-3D percolation crossover of metal-insulator composites

Percolation properties and d.c. conductivity were determined for an L²×h-random resistor network model of metal-insulator composite films. The effects of the thickness h on the percolation threshold and conductivity were studied numerically in the limit of an infinite size of the L²-plane parallel to the film. For thicknesses ranging from h/L=0.01 to h/L=0.24, a crossover between a finite-size regime and a saturation regime was observed at h/L≈0.1. In the finite-size regime (h/L?0.01), the percolation threshold scales as pc(h)−pc3∝h−1/x, the exponent x being compatible with that of the critical exponent of the 3D correlation length, ν₃. The conductivity exponent t appeared to depend linearly on the ratio h/L with a slope νD compatible with 2+ν₂, where ν₂ is the 2D correlation length exponent. In the saturation regime, a scaling correction for the percolation threshold was found with an exponent 1+1/ν₃. In this regime we also observed a logarithmic dependence of the conductivity exponent on h/L.     

The replacement of a phenol group by an aniline or acetanilide group enhances the cytotoxicity of 2-ferrocenyl-1,1-diphenyl-but-l-ene compounds against breast cancer cells

We have previously shown that conjugated ferrocenyl p-phenols show strong cytotoxic effects against both the hormone-dependent MCF-7 and hormone-independent MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell lines, possibly via oxidative quinone methide formation. We now present a series of analogous amine and acetamide compounds: 2-ferrocenyl-1-(4-aminophenyl)-1-phenyl-but-1-ene (Z+E-2), 2-ferrocenyl-1-(4-N-acetylaminophenyl)-1-phenyl-but-1-ene (Z-3), and their corresponding organic molecules 1-(4-aminophenyl)-1,2-bis-phenyl-but-1-ene (Z+E-4) and 1-(4-N-acetamidophenyl)-1,2-bis-phenyl-but-1-ene (Z+E-5). All of the compounds have adequate relative binding affinity values for the estrogen receptor; between 2.8% and 5.7% for ERα, and between 0.18% and 15.5% for ERβ, as well as exothermic ligand binding in in silico ER docking experiments. Compounds 2 and 3 show dual estrogenic/cytotoxic activity on the MCF-7 cell line; they are proliferative at low concentrations (0.1 μM) and antiproliferative at high concentrations (10 μM). On the MDA-MB-231 cell line, the ferrocenyl complexes 2 and 3 are antiproliferative with IC₅₀ values of 0.8 μM for 2 and 0.65 μM for 3, while the purely organic molecules 4 and 5 show no effect. Electrochemical experiments suggest that both 2 and 3 can be transformed to oxidized quinoid-type species, analogous to what had previously been observed for the ferrocene phenols.     

Anti-Wick Symbols for Infinite Products in K-Homology

We consider infinite products in K-homology. We study these products in relation with operators on filtered Hilbert spaces, and infinite iterations of universal constructions on C*-algebras. In particular, infinite tensor power of extensions of pseudodifferential operators on R are considered. We extend anti-Wick pseudodifferential operators to infinite tensor products of spaces of the type L ²(R), and compare our infinite tensor power construction with an extension of pseudodifferential operators on R . We show that the K-theory connecting maps coincide. We propose a natural definition of ellipticity for anti-Wick operators on R, compute the corresponding index, and draw some consequences concerning these operators.     

Enhancement of catalytic activity in the synthesis of 2-amino-4H-chromene derivatives using both copper- and cobalt-incorporated magnetic ferrite nanoparticles

Research on Chemical Intermediates - Cu0.5Co0.5Fe2O4 magnetic nanoparticles were prepared, characterized and employed as bench-top, highly active and magnetically separable nanocatalysts for the...